‘It was a lot of fun out in the middle at the time’

The Mixed Zone’s cricket columnist Tammy Beaumont put on a record 275-run stand with Sarah Taylor in the World Cup match against South Africa, the highest partnership for any wicket by an England pair. Tammy hit 148 and Sarah 147 as England continued to look strong contenders to reach the semi-finals of the tournament. Here, in her second column, Tammy explains why that record meant so much to her, as well as offering an insight into what the team get up to in their downtime.

Photo credit: Getty Images via ECB

It felt great to be part of that highest one-day partnership with Sarah the other day. In truth, we were just looking to keep our stand going to help out the team, but it was a lot of fun out in the middle at the time. I believe the way Sarah and I play really complements each other. We are both strong in different areas, which makes it hard for the opposition to bowl at us.

I’m really proud of the way Sarah has come back into international cricket after her well-documented problems with anxiety. This showed she was back, big time. She’s one of my good friends in the team, so it’s great to have her back, happy and healthy. When she’s scoring runs it’s even better. I definitely punched the air when we ran through for her hundred.

That has to be one of my best performances for England to date. South Africa have a good bowling attack, so it was nice to perform so well against them. Even better, I was lucky to have nearly all my family there to support me. My mum and dad missed my centuries against Pakistan last year, so it was nice to have them in the crowd along with my brother, aunt, uncle and cousins.

We followed up that win with another against Australia on Sunday to make it four wins on the trot since we lost our opening game against India. We need to give credit to the Indians for the way they came out and took the attack to us. They look a really good side at the moment, so we shouldn’t be surprised how they played against us at Derby.

Credit to us as well at how we’ve come back so strongly with those wins against Pakistan, Sri Lanka, South Africa and Australia. We looked at a few areas we needed to improve upon and we’ve been looking to get better each game. It’s New Zealand today back at Derby where we’ll be looking to go another step closer to qualifying for the semi-finals.

We’ve got a really good dressing room with loads of different characters. I’m quite chatty, but our captain Heather and spinner Laura Marsh are probably two of the bigger pranksters. It’s nice when you all get on as a team because it’s not really something you can fake.

We’ve been on tour for a while now, so it’s hard to remember all the good bits! We celebrated Katherine Brunt’s birthday in Taunton during the Sri Lanka game. We even had a tiny slice of cake in the changing room after the game. Bristol was a great city to be in for a week. There’s quite a bit to do there, so we can all do stuff in the hours when Love Island’s not on! I went to a pub quiz on a barge with Heather, Laura, Beth Langston and a few other members of our group. And we won! Let’s hope it’s not the only thing we win this tournament.

We’ll continue to take each game as it comes. And if we make it to the Lord’s final, it will be all about who’s the best team on the day.

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